This I Believe

Happiness is an inside job. To be happy and in a good mood, you have to be able to control the inside of you first. Inside is where your feelings and emotions come from. You have to be able to go deep inside yourself and dig the feelings out. A car runs from the motor and not the paint on the outside. A piano plays because of the mechanism, not from the white keys you press. Also, a gasoline pump runs from gas being pumped into the tank, not from the person on the outside. What’s in it is what controls it. Your eyes don’t control you, your mouth doesn’t control you, what comes straight from your heart. You are supposed to think before you listen, and before you start jabbering. It is an inside job that will carry you in life. Other people don’t have an effect on you either. You make your own decisions and learn to make the best ones. It is your heart that drives you, absolutely nothing else.

People make mistakes in life because of poor decisions, but better judgment can correct the miscue. Nobody is perfect in life. Doctors aren’t perfect, teachers aren’t perfect, and of course athletes aren’t. God didn’t want to create perfect humans because then the world wouldn’t have any flaws in it. People wouldn’t have to make themselves better then or change things about them. Everyone would be able to do the same things and without feelings, individuals need to be challenged. If everything we did were easy, then putting your mind and emotions into things would become unnecessary. Life just would not be fun and have absolutely no feeling or sense of urgency to it. It would be dull and useless to every human being.

So, remember you are born with one heart and soul. You were given them to make the best decisions, use feeling and emotions in things, and drive yourself to be the person you want to be and are supposed to be. You only work from the inside, where happiness can only come out full force.

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Top 100 Essays USB Drive

This USB drive contains 100 of the top This I Believe audio broadcasts of the last ten years, plus some favorites from Edward R. Murrow's radio series of the 1950s. It's perfect for personal or classroom use! Click here to learn more.

This week’s essay

As half of the magic act Penn and Teller, Penn Jillette enjoys challenging his audiences with the unconventional. In stating his personal credo, Jillette finds liberation in believing there is no God. Click here to read his essay.